Each year, Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion runs through the six weeks of Lent and brings together communities across Australia, in solidarity with the world’s poor, to help end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity.

As part of Project Compassion, the Catholic Diocese of Bathurst welcomed Mr Janak Prasad Sharma, Regional Program Manager of Caritas Nepal. Janak is working with the most vulnerable communities of the earthquake prone country to develop new opportunities and more stable futures.

Mr Sharma spoke about the four districts across Nepal, where he heads a children and youth program that tackles issues like youth unemployment and early marriage, through skills development and education. Mr Sharma is a lawyer and lobbies for minority rights. He is a member of the Nepal Bar Association and the ‘Human Security Alliance’ of Nepal and Bangladesh.

As a Project Compassion speaker for 2018, Janak highlighted the important development work, which Caritas performs in the impoverished nation is helping create livelihoods and empowering a new generation of young people to become the architects of their own development.

During Lent, Australians are invited to support Project Compassion by making a donation, or by hosting fundraising events in their local school, parish, community or neighbourhood.